The Day We Camped At Heyburn State Park

If you ask Katelyn and Brooke, the only thing more exciting than getting to go camping this summer, was finally being able to go camping with our good friends the Wills. 

Tami and I headed up in the afternoon with the kids so they could enjoy all the fun things the camp ground had to offer.

The kids all loved the giant playground right by the beach.  We had a hard time getting them to head down to the water, but once they saw what was IN the water, we couldn’t get them to leave.

There were two giant “surfboards” that the kids absolutely loved.

They surfed…

…they jumped, posed and paddled.

The coolness of their logs attracted some new friends as well.  The kids were ready to camp right there on their surfboards, but we eventually talked them into going back to set up our campsite.

While Tami and I got things set up and started getting dinner ready, the kids explored.  Emily was in the charge of all rock inspections and the big kids were in charge of checking everything out while keeping Emily out of trouble.

Pretty soon it was time for dinner and then the “daddy watch” was officially underway.

We had about 5 billion false alarms but the kids were anxious to escort Kyle and Jason into our campsite when they arrived after work and show them all of the coolness.

After the kids had given the dads their tour, it was time for night crazies games and fun with flashlights.

We also made good use of our fire and ate plenty of s’mores.

Emily ate a little bit of everything she could get her hands on, but her favorite treat was chewing on her glow stick. 

The kids watched Rio in our tent on Katelyn’s iPod and eventually it was time for everyone to go to sleep.  Emily had been enjoying herself immensely, but she was not at all interested in sleeping in the tent.  We had to play dead to get her to go to FINALLY go to sleep and as soon as she woke up in the morning she said, “Go go go buckle buckle buckle buckle.”  She was ready to go.  I concur. 

We enjoyed a delicious breakfast in the sunshine and fresh mountain air and even headed down to do a little bit of fishing.

It wasn’t the most ideal fishing spot, so when the kids didn’t have any luck after about 30 seconds, they were ready to head to their “surfboards.” 

So we played in the water and enjoyed the beautiful weather some more, and then it was time…

…for more fun.  We made a quick lunch stop and headed to a party on Hayden Lake with our church.

The kids had more fun in the sun.  There were water fights and dock jumping...

…and lots of playing in the warm sand.  Emily was happy to place it on top of Brooke’s head by the shovelful.

There was lots of fun, food, friends and fatigue.

After dinner, it was time to pack it up and head back to reality.  The reality that is of two days of sand and lots of camping mess to clean up.  But we all had a blast and it was totally worth it.  The best part was when we told the kids it was time to go, they all got really sad and said in complete and utter disbelief, as if we had only been gone a few minutes, “Is it over already?”  Yes, yes it is.  But is was so worth it and so fun.  We will definitely do it again next year, but first I have to take a nap.